Some updates from the World of Gozer about the upcoming third Ghostbusters movie!:
“He’s always here.” - Ivan Reitman when asked if the new Ghostbusters will explain Harold Ramis’ [Egon Spengler] absence:
From io9:
Sigourney Weaver May Be Heading Back to Ghostbusters With a Few More Original Cast Members
By his own declaration, Jason Reitman’s upcoming Ghostbusters movie is for the fans. Yes, it will star mostly new characters, but “this is the next chapter in the original franchise,” he said earlier this year. “It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day.”
With that in mind, the following tidbit may not come as a complete surprise, but it’s exciting nonetheless. In an interview with Parade Magazine, Sigourney Weaver sure makes it sound like she’s coming back for the new film. “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again,” she says, referring to Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd—who, apparently, may also be returning. Weaver also confirms to the magazine that she’s reprising her role as Dana Barrett, which seems to suggest that everyone else will be doing the same with their characters.
Representatives for Reitman had no comment on this news and Sony would neither confirm or deny. io9 also reached out to Weaver’s reps and will update the story if we hear back.
Beyond that, we know that the new Ghostbusters will star Carrie Coon as a single mother of two, her kids will be played by Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace, and that the family will have some kind of connection with those original characters. The movie is due out summer 2020.
Expect maybe a little more information this weekend, as Sony is hosting a Ghostbusters Fan Fest at its studio lot in Culver City, CA.
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From io9:
Jason Reitman Continues to Tease the Return of Classic Ghostbusters Stars in the Upcoming Reboot
Recently, actress Sigourney Weaver, who played Dana Barrett in the original Ghostbusters, suggested to Parade Magazine that she might be returning for the new film, helmed by Jason Reitman.
This weekend, at the Ghostbusters Fan Fest event in Los Angeles, Reitman addressed that revelation, though he did so, well, obliguely. According to Entertainment Weekly and the Ghostbusters Twitter account, Reitman mentioned the three actors that Weaver referred to—herself, Dan Akroyd, and Bill Murray—along with Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson, saying, “Sigourney has read the screenplay... Dan has read it... Ernie’s read the script... Bill Murray has read the script.”
That’s not not a confirmation that they might be reprising their roles. In fact, it seems like an oblique way to confirm something you can’t share just yet. Did Sigourney talk too soon?
Ghostbusters, which also according to the film’s Twitter should start shooting in about five weeks, will be released on July 10, 2020.
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From EW:
Ghostbusters reboot director says original stars have read script of new film
Director Jason Reitman revealed Saturday afternoon that the stars of the original Ghostbusters have read the script of his new film in the franchise. “Sigourney has read the screenplay… Dan has read it… Ernie’s read the script… Bill Murray has read the script,” Reitman said at the Ghostbusters Fan Fest in Los Angeles, according to the official Ghostbusters Twitter account.
In an interview with Parade published on Friday, Weaver had seemingly confirmed that she was set to reunite with Murray and Aykroyd in Reitman’s film. “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!” Weaver told the magazine. Sony, which is producing the movie, declined to comment on Weaver’s remarks.
Reitman also announced at the event that he was set to shoot starting the movie in five weeks time and that he wants “to scare children.”
In January, EW broke the news that Reitman is directing and co-writing a new Ghostbusters movie set in the same world as the 1984 original. That movie was directed by his father, Ivan Reitman.
“I’ve always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set,” the younger Reitman said at the time. “I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans. This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day.”
The new Ghostbusters will be released on July 10, 2020.
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From GameSpot:
Ghostbusters 3 To Begin Shooting Soon, Original Cast Members Reportedly Confirmed
It's kicking off sooner than we thought.
Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, spoke at Ghostbusters Fan Fest on Saturday about his upcoming 2020 sequel, which follows the world his father helped create in 1984. The first teaser for the movie was revealed back in January, but it will still be a little while before filming begins.
Speaking to a crowd at the director panel at the convention, Jason Reitman explained that the 2020 Ghostbuters sequel will start shooting in five weeks, as long as everything goes to plan. Originally, the story for the movie revolved around a 12-year-old girl with a proton pack. But since then, the idea has grown and revolves around a family. How does this family fit into the world? "You don't know their connection, and they don't know their connection either," Reitman explained. There have been reports the movie is casting four teens to lead the film: two boys, two girls.
He said he's excited about the possibility of making all kinds of Ghostbusters movies. And while the stars of the original film--Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Bill Murray--have all read the script, he would not confirm if they are in fact coming back. The other star of the movie, Harold Ramis, passed away in 2014.
However, during an interview with Parade Magazine, Weaver herself confirmed she will be in the movie, along with Murray and Aykroyd. "It's going to be crazy working with the guys again," she exclaimed. Sony has yet to comment on the remarks.
Next year's movie will not be connected to the 2016 reboot, which angered one of the stars, but aside from Reitman being the son of the original director, he's a fan of the movie. "I love everything about it. The iconography. The music. The tone," Reitman told Entertainment Weekly. "I remember being on set and seeing them try out the card catalog gag for the first time when the library ghost makes them come flying out. I remember the day they killed Stay Puft and I brought home a hardened piece of foam that just sat on a shelf for years. I was scared there was a terror dog underneath my bed before people knew what a terror dog was."
The third movie in the original Ghostbusters universe hits theaters on July 10, 2020.
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From ComicBook:
Bill Murray and Original Cast Have Read Ghostbusters 3 Script
Ghostbusters stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver have all read writer-director Jason Reitman’s script for the third film, Reitman confirmed Saturday at Ghostbusters Fan Fest.
Weaver, who starred as the haunted Dana Barrett across two Ivan Reitman-directed films, earlier confirmed her return to the franchise in an interview with Parade, telling the magazine, “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!”
Plot details remain under wraps, but the project is said to center around four teens and a small town family (Avengers: Infinity War’s Carrie Coon, Captain Marvel’s McKenna Grace, and Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard).
Reitman has “written a beautiful script,” Aykroyd said.
“I can’t say too much about it but it’s going to get made and hopefully there’ll be some familiar faces. It’s so different from even the first and second [film]. This just takes it to a new generation and a new direction that is so warm, heartfelt and indeed, quite scary when you confront some of the issues that are being discussed.”
At Ghostbusters Fan Fest Friday — 35 years to the day after the 1984 hit comedy debuted — Aykroyd appeared alongside Hudson, Walter Peck star William Atherton, and both Reitmans, giving his enthusiastic approval over Reitman’s script before lobbying for more sequels.
“You may have heard that a very fine director has written this extraordinary script,” Ivan Reitman said to Aykroyd’s agreement. “It has really blown us all away, blown Sony away, and he’s gonna deliver this extraordinary movie for 2020.”
The younger Reitman “wanted to make a love letter to the original movie,” the Juno filmmaker said of the project being referred to as Ghostbusters ’20.
Admitting undertaking the project was a “very intimidating thing,” Reitman said he wants to “scare children” and recreate the feeling of ‘80s movies. “One of my favorite things about [‘80s] movies is that they can be funny and scary at the same time,” he said.
Sony Pictures will open Ghostbusters 3 July 10, 2020.
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From ComicBook:
Sigourney Weaver Confirms Return for New Ghostbusters, Bill Murray Likely Involved
Jason Reitman's upcoming Ghostbusters sequel is expected to bring back the surviving cast members of the original two films. However, it may be a surprise that one of the major side characters is also coming back: Sigourney Weaver!
Weaver was recently doing an interview in the subject of her upcoming projects came up, and it was revealed that she's signed on for the 2020 Ghostbusters, reprising her role as Dana Barrett from the first two films.
As reported by Parade Magazine:
“She’s also set to reunite with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in the new Ghostbusters, due July 2020. ‘It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!’ she says. She won’t reveal any details except to confirm she’s reprising her role as hauntee Dana Barrett.”
This quote isn't just a nice confirmation that Weaver's Dana Barrett is coming back for Ghostbusters (2020) - it's also the most solid confirmation we have that the original Ghostbusters actors (Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd) are indeed involved in the project!
As stated above, the new Ghostbusters was always expected to bring back the surviving original cast members - but there's been no official announcement from the studios, the director, or the actors themselves. Weaver confirming her return - and casually mentioning how fun it will be, "working with the guys again" - pretty much shatters any lingering doubt that the original Ghostbusters team will be back.
Of course, the lack of confirmation hasn't stopped Dan Aykroyd from speaking freely about the film:
"Ivan Reitman’s son Jason has written a beautiful script, I can’t say too much about it but it’s going to get made and hopefully there’ll be some familiar faces,” Aykroyd revealed. “It’s so different from even the first and second (film). This just takes it to a new generation and a new direction that is so warm, heartfelt and indeed, quite scary when you confront some of the issues that are being discussed."
This 2020 Ghostbusters sequel has been rumored to be a 'passing of the torch' story, wherein the original Ghostbusters pass on their job to a new generations of ghost hunters. That new generation will include the already-cast Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, IT) and McKenna Grace (Fuller House, Annabelle Comes Home), while actress Carrie Coon (The Leftovers, Avengers: Infinity War) will be a new adult character in the film.
We may be getting confirmation of the Ghostbusters cast - both new and returning members - much sooner before later. Here's the recent tease that Jason Reitman dropped, about the Ghostbusters Fan Fest this weekend:
"Working on a little surprise for this Saturday’s Ghostbusters Fan Fest," Reitman shared on Twitter with a clip of an outtake from the original Ghostbusters. "See you on the lot."
Be sure to check back this weekend to see what new Ghostbusters details are revealed.
The Ghostbusters sequel will hit theaters on July 10, 2020.
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From Parade:
Sigourney Weaver Reminisces on Her Career, Alien, Avatar and the New Ghostbusters
Sigourney Weaver doesn’t sit around and watch her greatest hits. But a few years ago, she did revisit perhaps the greatest of her greatest—the original Alien, the 1979 sci-fi horror classic that launched her movie career, and a movie franchise, 40 years ago this summer.
“It was a walk down memory lane,” she says. “The scene where I’m floating in a white spacesuit watching the alien get pulled away? I remember the effects guys hung me up, 30 feet off the ground, and left me there while they went to lunch!”
And four decades later, she still hasn’t quite come down. The bone-chilling, nerve-rattling Alien—in which the members of a commercial space attempt to fight off a deadly extraterrestrial they’ve brought aboard—may be legendary for its masterful production design, the beast bursting out of a character’s torso and the immortal tag line, “In space, nobody can hear you scream.” But it was a groundbreaker because of Weaver’s standout performance as coolheaded warrant officer Ellen Ripley, the movie’s steely heroine who fought back and lived to tell the horrors, Moby Dick–style, aboard the spaceship Nostromo.
“The story was originally all men,” Weaver, 69, explains. “But the writers thought it would be very timely to have a woman be the sole survivor. Nobody saw her coming.”
That’s especially true because Ripley was played by a 28-year-old stage actress in her first major role. “I was Miss Nobody from nowhere!” says Weaver, who’s since racked up more than 80 diverse acting credits in everything from mainstream comedies (Ghostbusters, Working Girl, Dave, Heartbreakers) to acclaimed dramas (The Ice Storm, Gorillas in the Mist, The Year of Living Dangerously). She’s also a three-time Oscar nominee who received a Best Actress nod for reprising the role of Ripley in the 1986 sequel, Aliens. She’s since portrayed the character two more times on the big screen, advancing in rank to lieutenant and kicking major alien butt across the galaxy.
“I’m very proud of [Ripley] because she couldn’t be any less like me,” Weaver says. “When something bad happens, Ripley says, ‘OK, here’s what I need to do.’ She does her duty and never gives up. I’d be the person cracking jokes to deflect the terror.”
Related: We Ranked All Eight of the Alien Films, Including Alien: Covenant
TOWERING TALENT
“I never thought I’d be an actress,” Weaver says in between bites of chicken salad after the camera stops clicking at her Parade photo shoot. It wasn’t because her mother, British stage thespian Elizabeth Inglis, tried her hand in Hollywood and didn’t make it big. And not because her father, Pat, was a hard-to-compete-with television pioneer.
It was her height: At age 11, Weaver was already 5-foot-10½, self-consciously towering over her mom. “I felt like a giant spider,” she says. “I never had the confidence to ever think I could act.”
The Weavers didn’t go to many movies, save for comedies like The Pink Panther. In their Manhattan household, television was king. She’s still in awe of her father’s TV accomplishments. “He was amazing. While his friends were creating Hee Haw, he was breaking ground,” book-ending broadcast television by creating the Today and Tonight shows in the 1950s.
Weaver’s mom, meanwhile, made sure her daughter knew how to ride a horse and play tennis. Like so many other English women of a certain age, she hoped her daughter would grow up and marry Prince Charles. “I said, ‘He’d never pick me! I’m American!,” she jokes, aware of the irony that the British royal’s son, Harry, grew up to do that very thing. She also inherited her mother’s British sensibilities. “If you’re brought up by an English parent, you don’t like to talk about yourself and it can give the impression you’re aloof,” she says. “But you’re just repressed! I think I was always more of a golden retriever than my mom wanted me to be.”
She eventually came into her own. Around age 13, she changed her name from Susan to Sigourney as a nod to a character in The Great Gatsby. (“It was long because I was long. I was too tall for ‘Sue.’”) Her parents called her “S” because she loved the initial. She attended college at Sarah Lawrence and Stanford University, majoring in English. She considered becoming a teacher or journalist. She graduated from Stanford with an English degree, then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Yale University School of Drama.
“My friends started hiring me in New York for their plays, but it took me about two years to realize I could say I was an actress and I could actually make a living, much to my parents’ surprise,” she says. “They thought I was too shy to do anything.” Her goal, she adds, was to portray roles of all different sizes and genres on the stage. When her film career took off, she set out to abide by the same model. She’s still a pro at picking top-notch stories, no matter the part. “If it’s a great juicy role [but a] shi–y script, then I’m never tempted,” she says.
ALIEN ENCOUNTER
But back in 1978, Weaver didn’t have any idea that the story about a group of space scavengers in peril was a future game-changer. “I didn’t want to do the movie,” she admits of Alien. The 20th Century Fox execs sent her to the wrong address for the audition, so she considered blowing it all off. But she finally showed up to her meeting with director Ridley Scott in “the highest heels ever” and brazenly told the director that she didn’t like the script because it was too bleak. “[My] casting director was in the corner making a face like, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’” she recalls.
Then Scott pulled out the designs of his space-set production—and it didn’t look like any other outer-space movie Weaver had ever seen. “The alien eggs had little baby faces on them, like chubby cheeks,” she says. “I knew I had never seen a movie that had looked anything like this.” Scott was so keen on Weaver getting the part of Ripley that when she flew out to London for her screen test, he had built a set just for her audition. “He fought hard for me because the studio didn’t want an unknown in the part,” she says.
A few female assistants were the deciding factor. Weaver adds, “The head of Fox watched the screen test in his office and turned to the secretaries and said, ‘Well, what did you think? Do you like her?’ And they said, ‘We like her, we think she’s great.’ They got me the part. Thank you, ladies!”
Weaver has vivid memories of what she dubs a mischievous production, particularly the infamous “chest burster” scene. “We get to the set and the crew is wearing these black raincoats,” she recalls. “We knew that something was going to come out of someone’s chest but we didn’t know what it was going to look like. My only line in the script was, ‘Oh, my God!’”
Sure enough, as British actor John Hurt lay on the table, the crew used hoses and tubes and other contraptions so a creature literally jumped out of him and “ran” across the room.
Weaver reenacts the entire sequence with hand motions. “The whole cast was in shock because we were convinced it was real!” she exclaims. “I still don’t know how they did it. At least [the director] was kind enough to make sure the blood didn’t spatter on me.”
Looking back, she says, “I was scared when I saw the movie. You know what scared me? The sound—and that you couldn’t hear everybody all the time. That’s like life.”
To this day, Weaver says she marvels at the science fiction genre, revisiting it in films such as Avatar and the Pixar classic Wall-E. “I’m not a snob about sci-fi,” she says. “They’re so ahead of their time because we’re still looking to the future and exploring what humans are going to be like. It’s always relevant.”
Her Ripley roles in the Alien franchise established her sci-fi cred, but she went on to star in several other well-received horror, sci-fi and scary-movie projects that also enhanced her reputation as a movie scream queen. In 2012, her cameo in the devilishly clever The Cabin in the Woods, a multilayered horror-movie homage, was a salute to her status in the genre.
AVATAR AND BEYOND
As she approaches her 70th birthday in October, Weaver says she’s fulfilled both on screen and off. She and her husband of 35 years, theater director Jim Simpson, now reside full-time in Manhattan after splitting their time on both coasts. Their daughter, Charlotte, is getting a dual master’s degree at the California Institute of the Arts in writing and interactive media. “She’s not in the industry, bless her heart,” Weaver says with a laugh. “It’s a nightmare for parents in the business when their child says, ‘I want to be in show business,’ because we really know what it entails.”
The couple enjoys spending time in Hawaii, where her mother-in-law still resides. (Simpson is a Hawaii native.) “We do a lot of snorkeling,” she says. “It’s so nice to be a normal human and to be able to hang my laundry. As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I never get to do that.” She’s also involved in many environmental causes, including preserving clean water around the world.
She’ll soon head back to New Zealand, where she’s been at work filming the live and CGI portions of the long-awaited, effects-driven Avatar sequels. (Because her Avatar character died at the end of the 2009 original, she’ll be playing someone new in the next four installments, the first of which is scheduled for the big screen in 2021.) She’s also set to reunite with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in the new Ghostbusters, due July 2020. “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!” she says. She won’t reveal any details except to confirm she’s reprising her role as hauntee Dana Barrett.
Asked how she feels about getting older, Weaver responds without hesitation, “I love it.” No, really. “I enjoy working with younger people because I learn so much from them. And I like to bring in my own ways of doing things. I’m always on time. It’s important for older actors to show you’re always prepared. And I’m getting wonderful parts.”
For that, she thanks the very trait she used to hate: “I was never the babe or the beautiful ingénue or the love interest, because I was too tall. So I’ve always played interesting people, and that’s continued. It’s not like I suddenly have to figure out who I am now.”
And that’s why she’ll always stand tall in her heels and continue reaching for the stars. “My mother always said that I might not enjoy my height now, but someday I’ll be glad,” she says. “She was right.”
Sigourney Weaver Shares Some of Her Favorite Movie Memories
Ghostbusters (1984)
“I knew it would be big,” she says of the comedy blockbuster with two popular Saturday Night Live actors, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, and Meatballs, Caddyshack and Stripes writer and actor Harold Ramis. “The script was so funny and full of heart.” She played Dana, the first Ghostbusters customer, who later turned into the sinister gatekeeper Zuul. “Ghostbusters changed my life,” she says.
Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
The movie in which she portrayed American primatologist and conservationist Dian Fossey had a profound impact on her: “It wasn’t until Dian that I appreciated that animals have equal rights on this planet,” she says. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for the role.
Working Girl (1988)
Let the river run! Weaver says that director Mike Nichols offered her the role of conniving boss Katharine Parker “because he knew I’d love the comedy,” she says. And though the underdog-worker story is now some 30 years old, “the only thing that’s dated are the clothes. That’s how it should be.”
1993.Dave-FTR
Dave (1993)
For all her East Coast aura, Weaver insists that she’s only played upper-crust society women in Working Girl and this light political comedy—in which she was the “unhappy” FLOTUS to Kevin Kline’s presidential imposter. “The costumes made me look extra dignified!” she says.
A Map of the World (1999)
Weaver cites this indie drama as her most underrated work. She played a small-town nurse and mother who finds herself fighting child abuse charges. “She’s an amazing character but not sympathetic,” she explains. “The movie never got seen.”
Avatar (2009)
Reuniting with her Aliens director James Cameron for this Oscar-winning 3D wonder, she starred as the doomed Dr. Grace Augustine on the lush alien world of Pandora. She says of the epic, “It’s a great adventure movie about so many things, including the health of the environment.” Plus, “We had so much fun filming it!”
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GHOSTBUSTERS FAN FEST EXCLUSIVE: Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver (deleted scenes/alternate takes)
Hilarious alternate takes from a scene in Ghostbusters featuring Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.
Footage recorded at Ghostbusters Fan Fest at Sony Studios.
“He’s always here.” - Ivan Reitman when asked if the new Ghostbusters will explain Harold Ramis’ [Egon Spengler] absence:
From io9:
Sigourney Weaver May Be Heading Back to Ghostbusters With a Few More Original Cast Members
By his own declaration, Jason Reitman’s upcoming Ghostbusters movie is for the fans. Yes, it will star mostly new characters, but “this is the next chapter in the original franchise,” he said earlier this year. “It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day.”
With that in mind, the following tidbit may not come as a complete surprise, but it’s exciting nonetheless. In an interview with Parade Magazine, Sigourney Weaver sure makes it sound like she’s coming back for the new film. “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again,” she says, referring to Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd—who, apparently, may also be returning. Weaver also confirms to the magazine that she’s reprising her role as Dana Barrett, which seems to suggest that everyone else will be doing the same with their characters.
Representatives for Reitman had no comment on this news and Sony would neither confirm or deny. io9 also reached out to Weaver’s reps and will update the story if we hear back.
Beyond that, we know that the new Ghostbusters will star Carrie Coon as a single mother of two, her kids will be played by Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace, and that the family will have some kind of connection with those original characters. The movie is due out summer 2020.
Expect maybe a little more information this weekend, as Sony is hosting a Ghostbusters Fan Fest at its studio lot in Culver City, CA.
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From io9:
Jason Reitman Continues to Tease the Return of Classic Ghostbusters Stars in the Upcoming Reboot
Recently, actress Sigourney Weaver, who played Dana Barrett in the original Ghostbusters, suggested to Parade Magazine that she might be returning for the new film, helmed by Jason Reitman.
This weekend, at the Ghostbusters Fan Fest event in Los Angeles, Reitman addressed that revelation, though he did so, well, obliguely. According to Entertainment Weekly and the Ghostbusters Twitter account, Reitman mentioned the three actors that Weaver referred to—herself, Dan Akroyd, and Bill Murray—along with Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson, saying, “Sigourney has read the screenplay... Dan has read it... Ernie’s read the script... Bill Murray has read the script.”
That’s not not a confirmation that they might be reprising their roles. In fact, it seems like an oblique way to confirm something you can’t share just yet. Did Sigourney talk too soon?
Ghostbusters, which also according to the film’s Twitter should start shooting in about five weeks, will be released on July 10, 2020.
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From EW:
Ghostbusters reboot director says original stars have read script of new film
Director Jason Reitman revealed Saturday afternoon that the stars of the original Ghostbusters have read the script of his new film in the franchise. “Sigourney has read the screenplay… Dan has read it… Ernie’s read the script… Bill Murray has read the script,” Reitman said at the Ghostbusters Fan Fest in Los Angeles, according to the official Ghostbusters Twitter account.
In an interview with Parade published on Friday, Weaver had seemingly confirmed that she was set to reunite with Murray and Aykroyd in Reitman’s film. “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!” Weaver told the magazine. Sony, which is producing the movie, declined to comment on Weaver’s remarks.
Reitman also announced at the event that he was set to shoot starting the movie in five weeks time and that he wants “to scare children.”
In January, EW broke the news that Reitman is directing and co-writing a new Ghostbusters movie set in the same world as the 1984 original. That movie was directed by his father, Ivan Reitman.
“I’ve always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set,” the younger Reitman said at the time. “I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans. This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day.”
The new Ghostbusters will be released on July 10, 2020.
“If all goes as planned, we’re gonna start shooting in five weeks” @JasonReitman 🎞 #GhostbustersFanFest
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 9, 2019
"One of my favorite things about movies [in the 80's] is that they can be funny and scary at the same time" 😱 @JasonReitman at #GhostbustersFanFest
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 9, 2019
"One of my favorite things about movies [in the 80's] is that they can be funny and scary at the same time" 😱 @JasonReitman at #GhostbustersFanFest
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 9, 2019
“I want to scare children.” @JasonReitman 👻 #Ghostbusters35
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 9, 2019
Why did you choose the announced actors? “They’re all three extraordinary actors...and you kinda go, ‘I want to find a way to work with them.’” @JasonReitman 🎬 #GhostbustersFanFest
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 9, 2019
"We wanted to make a love letter to the original movie" @JasonReitman on making #GB20 at #GhostbustersFanFest ❤️❤️❤️
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 9, 2019
“Sigourney has read the screenplay...Dan has read it...Ernie’s read the script...Bill Murray has read the script.” @JasonReitman 😉 🖊 #GhosbustersFanFest
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) June 9, 2019
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From GameSpot:
Ghostbusters 3 To Begin Shooting Soon, Original Cast Members Reportedly Confirmed
It's kicking off sooner than we thought.
Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, spoke at Ghostbusters Fan Fest on Saturday about his upcoming 2020 sequel, which follows the world his father helped create in 1984. The first teaser for the movie was revealed back in January, but it will still be a little while before filming begins.
Speaking to a crowd at the director panel at the convention, Jason Reitman explained that the 2020 Ghostbuters sequel will start shooting in five weeks, as long as everything goes to plan. Originally, the story for the movie revolved around a 12-year-old girl with a proton pack. But since then, the idea has grown and revolves around a family. How does this family fit into the world? "You don't know their connection, and they don't know their connection either," Reitman explained. There have been reports the movie is casting four teens to lead the film: two boys, two girls.
He said he's excited about the possibility of making all kinds of Ghostbusters movies. And while the stars of the original film--Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Bill Murray--have all read the script, he would not confirm if they are in fact coming back. The other star of the movie, Harold Ramis, passed away in 2014.
However, during an interview with Parade Magazine, Weaver herself confirmed she will be in the movie, along with Murray and Aykroyd. "It's going to be crazy working with the guys again," she exclaimed. Sony has yet to comment on the remarks.
Next year's movie will not be connected to the 2016 reboot, which angered one of the stars, but aside from Reitman being the son of the original director, he's a fan of the movie. "I love everything about it. The iconography. The music. The tone," Reitman told Entertainment Weekly. "I remember being on set and seeing them try out the card catalog gag for the first time when the library ghost makes them come flying out. I remember the day they killed Stay Puft and I brought home a hardened piece of foam that just sat on a shelf for years. I was scared there was a terror dog underneath my bed before people knew what a terror dog was."
The third movie in the original Ghostbusters universe hits theaters on July 10, 2020.
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From ComicBook:
Bill Murray and Original Cast Have Read Ghostbusters 3 Script
Ghostbusters stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver have all read writer-director Jason Reitman’s script for the third film, Reitman confirmed Saturday at Ghostbusters Fan Fest.
Weaver, who starred as the haunted Dana Barrett across two Ivan Reitman-directed films, earlier confirmed her return to the franchise in an interview with Parade, telling the magazine, “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!”
Plot details remain under wraps, but the project is said to center around four teens and a small town family (Avengers: Infinity War’s Carrie Coon, Captain Marvel’s McKenna Grace, and Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard).
Reitman has “written a beautiful script,” Aykroyd said.
“I can’t say too much about it but it’s going to get made and hopefully there’ll be some familiar faces. It’s so different from even the first and second [film]. This just takes it to a new generation and a new direction that is so warm, heartfelt and indeed, quite scary when you confront some of the issues that are being discussed.”
At Ghostbusters Fan Fest Friday — 35 years to the day after the 1984 hit comedy debuted — Aykroyd appeared alongside Hudson, Walter Peck star William Atherton, and both Reitmans, giving his enthusiastic approval over Reitman’s script before lobbying for more sequels.
“You may have heard that a very fine director has written this extraordinary script,” Ivan Reitman said to Aykroyd’s agreement. “It has really blown us all away, blown Sony away, and he’s gonna deliver this extraordinary movie for 2020.”
The younger Reitman “wanted to make a love letter to the original movie,” the Juno filmmaker said of the project being referred to as Ghostbusters ’20.
Admitting undertaking the project was a “very intimidating thing,” Reitman said he wants to “scare children” and recreate the feeling of ‘80s movies. “One of my favorite things about [‘80s] movies is that they can be funny and scary at the same time,” he said.
Sony Pictures will open Ghostbusters 3 July 10, 2020.
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From ComicBook:
Sigourney Weaver Confirms Return for New Ghostbusters, Bill Murray Likely Involved
Jason Reitman's upcoming Ghostbusters sequel is expected to bring back the surviving cast members of the original two films. However, it may be a surprise that one of the major side characters is also coming back: Sigourney Weaver!
Weaver was recently doing an interview in the subject of her upcoming projects came up, and it was revealed that she's signed on for the 2020 Ghostbusters, reprising her role as Dana Barrett from the first two films.
As reported by Parade Magazine:
“She’s also set to reunite with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in the new Ghostbusters, due July 2020. ‘It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!’ she says. She won’t reveal any details except to confirm she’s reprising her role as hauntee Dana Barrett.”
This quote isn't just a nice confirmation that Weaver's Dana Barrett is coming back for Ghostbusters (2020) - it's also the most solid confirmation we have that the original Ghostbusters actors (Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd) are indeed involved in the project!
As stated above, the new Ghostbusters was always expected to bring back the surviving original cast members - but there's been no official announcement from the studios, the director, or the actors themselves. Weaver confirming her return - and casually mentioning how fun it will be, "working with the guys again" - pretty much shatters any lingering doubt that the original Ghostbusters team will be back.
Of course, the lack of confirmation hasn't stopped Dan Aykroyd from speaking freely about the film:
"Ivan Reitman’s son Jason has written a beautiful script, I can’t say too much about it but it’s going to get made and hopefully there’ll be some familiar faces,” Aykroyd revealed. “It’s so different from even the first and second (film). This just takes it to a new generation and a new direction that is so warm, heartfelt and indeed, quite scary when you confront some of the issues that are being discussed."
This 2020 Ghostbusters sequel has been rumored to be a 'passing of the torch' story, wherein the original Ghostbusters pass on their job to a new generations of ghost hunters. That new generation will include the already-cast Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, IT) and McKenna Grace (Fuller House, Annabelle Comes Home), while actress Carrie Coon (The Leftovers, Avengers: Infinity War) will be a new adult character in the film.
We may be getting confirmation of the Ghostbusters cast - both new and returning members - much sooner before later. Here's the recent tease that Jason Reitman dropped, about the Ghostbusters Fan Fest this weekend:
"Working on a little surprise for this Saturday’s Ghostbusters Fan Fest," Reitman shared on Twitter with a clip of an outtake from the original Ghostbusters. "See you on the lot."
Be sure to check back this weekend to see what new Ghostbusters details are revealed.
The Ghostbusters sequel will hit theaters on July 10, 2020.
Working on a little surprise for this Saturday’s Ghostbusters Fan Fest. See you on the lot. #GB84 pic.twitter.com/EFyByKFOkx
— Jason Reitman (@JasonReitman) June 4, 2019
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From Parade:
Sigourney Weaver Reminisces on Her Career, Alien, Avatar and the New Ghostbusters
Sigourney Weaver doesn’t sit around and watch her greatest hits. But a few years ago, she did revisit perhaps the greatest of her greatest—the original Alien, the 1979 sci-fi horror classic that launched her movie career, and a movie franchise, 40 years ago this summer.
“It was a walk down memory lane,” she says. “The scene where I’m floating in a white spacesuit watching the alien get pulled away? I remember the effects guys hung me up, 30 feet off the ground, and left me there while they went to lunch!”
And four decades later, she still hasn’t quite come down. The bone-chilling, nerve-rattling Alien—in which the members of a commercial space attempt to fight off a deadly extraterrestrial they’ve brought aboard—may be legendary for its masterful production design, the beast bursting out of a character’s torso and the immortal tag line, “In space, nobody can hear you scream.” But it was a groundbreaker because of Weaver’s standout performance as coolheaded warrant officer Ellen Ripley, the movie’s steely heroine who fought back and lived to tell the horrors, Moby Dick–style, aboard the spaceship Nostromo.
“The story was originally all men,” Weaver, 69, explains. “But the writers thought it would be very timely to have a woman be the sole survivor. Nobody saw her coming.”
That’s especially true because Ripley was played by a 28-year-old stage actress in her first major role. “I was Miss Nobody from nowhere!” says Weaver, who’s since racked up more than 80 diverse acting credits in everything from mainstream comedies (Ghostbusters, Working Girl, Dave, Heartbreakers) to acclaimed dramas (The Ice Storm, Gorillas in the Mist, The Year of Living Dangerously). She’s also a three-time Oscar nominee who received a Best Actress nod for reprising the role of Ripley in the 1986 sequel, Aliens. She’s since portrayed the character two more times on the big screen, advancing in rank to lieutenant and kicking major alien butt across the galaxy.
“I’m very proud of [Ripley] because she couldn’t be any less like me,” Weaver says. “When something bad happens, Ripley says, ‘OK, here’s what I need to do.’ She does her duty and never gives up. I’d be the person cracking jokes to deflect the terror.”
Related: We Ranked All Eight of the Alien Films, Including Alien: Covenant
TOWERING TALENT
“I never thought I’d be an actress,” Weaver says in between bites of chicken salad after the camera stops clicking at her Parade photo shoot. It wasn’t because her mother, British stage thespian Elizabeth Inglis, tried her hand in Hollywood and didn’t make it big. And not because her father, Pat, was a hard-to-compete-with television pioneer.
It was her height: At age 11, Weaver was already 5-foot-10½, self-consciously towering over her mom. “I felt like a giant spider,” she says. “I never had the confidence to ever think I could act.”
The Weavers didn’t go to many movies, save for comedies like The Pink Panther. In their Manhattan household, television was king. She’s still in awe of her father’s TV accomplishments. “He was amazing. While his friends were creating Hee Haw, he was breaking ground,” book-ending broadcast television by creating the Today and Tonight shows in the 1950s.
Weaver’s mom, meanwhile, made sure her daughter knew how to ride a horse and play tennis. Like so many other English women of a certain age, she hoped her daughter would grow up and marry Prince Charles. “I said, ‘He’d never pick me! I’m American!,” she jokes, aware of the irony that the British royal’s son, Harry, grew up to do that very thing. She also inherited her mother’s British sensibilities. “If you’re brought up by an English parent, you don’t like to talk about yourself and it can give the impression you’re aloof,” she says. “But you’re just repressed! I think I was always more of a golden retriever than my mom wanted me to be.”
She eventually came into her own. Around age 13, she changed her name from Susan to Sigourney as a nod to a character in The Great Gatsby. (“It was long because I was long. I was too tall for ‘Sue.’”) Her parents called her “S” because she loved the initial. She attended college at Sarah Lawrence and Stanford University, majoring in English. She considered becoming a teacher or journalist. She graduated from Stanford with an English degree, then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at Yale University School of Drama.
“My friends started hiring me in New York for their plays, but it took me about two years to realize I could say I was an actress and I could actually make a living, much to my parents’ surprise,” she says. “They thought I was too shy to do anything.” Her goal, she adds, was to portray roles of all different sizes and genres on the stage. When her film career took off, she set out to abide by the same model. She’s still a pro at picking top-notch stories, no matter the part. “If it’s a great juicy role [but a] shi–y script, then I’m never tempted,” she says.
ALIEN ENCOUNTER
But back in 1978, Weaver didn’t have any idea that the story about a group of space scavengers in peril was a future game-changer. “I didn’t want to do the movie,” she admits of Alien. The 20th Century Fox execs sent her to the wrong address for the audition, so she considered blowing it all off. But she finally showed up to her meeting with director Ridley Scott in “the highest heels ever” and brazenly told the director that she didn’t like the script because it was too bleak. “[My] casting director was in the corner making a face like, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’” she recalls.
Then Scott pulled out the designs of his space-set production—and it didn’t look like any other outer-space movie Weaver had ever seen. “The alien eggs had little baby faces on them, like chubby cheeks,” she says. “I knew I had never seen a movie that had looked anything like this.” Scott was so keen on Weaver getting the part of Ripley that when she flew out to London for her screen test, he had built a set just for her audition. “He fought hard for me because the studio didn’t want an unknown in the part,” she says.
A few female assistants were the deciding factor. Weaver adds, “The head of Fox watched the screen test in his office and turned to the secretaries and said, ‘Well, what did you think? Do you like her?’ And they said, ‘We like her, we think she’s great.’ They got me the part. Thank you, ladies!”
Weaver has vivid memories of what she dubs a mischievous production, particularly the infamous “chest burster” scene. “We get to the set and the crew is wearing these black raincoats,” she recalls. “We knew that something was going to come out of someone’s chest but we didn’t know what it was going to look like. My only line in the script was, ‘Oh, my God!’”
Sure enough, as British actor John Hurt lay on the table, the crew used hoses and tubes and other contraptions so a creature literally jumped out of him and “ran” across the room.
Weaver reenacts the entire sequence with hand motions. “The whole cast was in shock because we were convinced it was real!” she exclaims. “I still don’t know how they did it. At least [the director] was kind enough to make sure the blood didn’t spatter on me.”
Looking back, she says, “I was scared when I saw the movie. You know what scared me? The sound—and that you couldn’t hear everybody all the time. That’s like life.”
To this day, Weaver says she marvels at the science fiction genre, revisiting it in films such as Avatar and the Pixar classic Wall-E. “I’m not a snob about sci-fi,” she says. “They’re so ahead of their time because we’re still looking to the future and exploring what humans are going to be like. It’s always relevant.”
Her Ripley roles in the Alien franchise established her sci-fi cred, but she went on to star in several other well-received horror, sci-fi and scary-movie projects that also enhanced her reputation as a movie scream queen. In 2012, her cameo in the devilishly clever The Cabin in the Woods, a multilayered horror-movie homage, was a salute to her status in the genre.
AVATAR AND BEYOND
As she approaches her 70th birthday in October, Weaver says she’s fulfilled both on screen and off. She and her husband of 35 years, theater director Jim Simpson, now reside full-time in Manhattan after splitting their time on both coasts. Their daughter, Charlotte, is getting a dual master’s degree at the California Institute of the Arts in writing and interactive media. “She’s not in the industry, bless her heart,” Weaver says with a laugh. “It’s a nightmare for parents in the business when their child says, ‘I want to be in show business,’ because we really know what it entails.”
The couple enjoys spending time in Hawaii, where her mother-in-law still resides. (Simpson is a Hawaii native.) “We do a lot of snorkeling,” she says. “It’s so nice to be a normal human and to be able to hang my laundry. As a born-and-bred New Yorker, I never get to do that.” She’s also involved in many environmental causes, including preserving clean water around the world.
She’ll soon head back to New Zealand, where she’s been at work filming the live and CGI portions of the long-awaited, effects-driven Avatar sequels. (Because her Avatar character died at the end of the 2009 original, she’ll be playing someone new in the next four installments, the first of which is scheduled for the big screen in 2021.) She’s also set to reunite with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in the new Ghostbusters, due July 2020. “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!” she says. She won’t reveal any details except to confirm she’s reprising her role as hauntee Dana Barrett.
Asked how she feels about getting older, Weaver responds without hesitation, “I love it.” No, really. “I enjoy working with younger people because I learn so much from them. And I like to bring in my own ways of doing things. I’m always on time. It’s important for older actors to show you’re always prepared. And I’m getting wonderful parts.”
For that, she thanks the very trait she used to hate: “I was never the babe or the beautiful ingénue or the love interest, because I was too tall. So I’ve always played interesting people, and that’s continued. It’s not like I suddenly have to figure out who I am now.”
And that’s why she’ll always stand tall in her heels and continue reaching for the stars. “My mother always said that I might not enjoy my height now, but someday I’ll be glad,” she says. “She was right.”
Sigourney Weaver Shares Some of Her Favorite Movie Memories
Ghostbusters (1984)
“I knew it would be big,” she says of the comedy blockbuster with two popular Saturday Night Live actors, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, and Meatballs, Caddyshack and Stripes writer and actor Harold Ramis. “The script was so funny and full of heart.” She played Dana, the first Ghostbusters customer, who later turned into the sinister gatekeeper Zuul. “Ghostbusters changed my life,” she says.
Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
The movie in which she portrayed American primatologist and conservationist Dian Fossey had a profound impact on her: “It wasn’t until Dian that I appreciated that animals have equal rights on this planet,” she says. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for the role.
Working Girl (1988)
Let the river run! Weaver says that director Mike Nichols offered her the role of conniving boss Katharine Parker “because he knew I’d love the comedy,” she says. And though the underdog-worker story is now some 30 years old, “the only thing that’s dated are the clothes. That’s how it should be.”
1993.Dave-FTR
Dave (1993)
For all her East Coast aura, Weaver insists that she’s only played upper-crust society women in Working Girl and this light political comedy—in which she was the “unhappy” FLOTUS to Kevin Kline’s presidential imposter. “The costumes made me look extra dignified!” she says.
A Map of the World (1999)
Weaver cites this indie drama as her most underrated work. She played a small-town nurse and mother who finds herself fighting child abuse charges. “She’s an amazing character but not sympathetic,” she explains. “The movie never got seen.”
Avatar (2009)
Reuniting with her Aliens director James Cameron for this Oscar-winning 3D wonder, she starred as the doomed Dr. Grace Augustine on the lush alien world of Pandora. She says of the epic, “It’s a great adventure movie about so many things, including the health of the environment.” Plus, “We had so much fun filming it!”
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GHOSTBUSTERS FAN FEST EXCLUSIVE: Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver (deleted scenes/alternate takes)
Hilarious alternate takes from a scene in Ghostbusters featuring Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.
Footage recorded at Ghostbusters Fan Fest at Sony Studios.
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